Wireless communication networks are widely deployed to provide various communication services such as telephony, video, data, messaging, broadcasts, and so on. Such networks, which are usually multiple access networks, support communications for multiple users by sharing the available network resources. One example of such a network is the UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN). The UTRAN is the radio access network (RAN) defined as a part of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), a third generation (3G) mobile phone technology supported by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). UMTS, which is the successor to Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) technologies, currently supports various air interface standards, such as Wideband-Code Division Multiple Access (W-CDMA), Time Division-Code Division Multiple Access (TD-CDMA), and Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA). UMTS also supports enhanced 3G data communications protocols, such as High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), which provides higher data transfer speeds and capacity to associated UMTS networks.
In the UMTS standards, signaling between a user equipment (UE) (also referred to as a mobile station, wireless terminal, mobile terminal, etc.) and a UTRAN is the information exchange concerning the establishment and control of the telecommunication channels and the management of the network. For signaling purposes, a lot of information is transmitted between the UE and UTRAN. The signaling between the UE and UTRAN is carried out using the radio interface protocols defined in the 3GPP standards. These radio interface protocols include the Media Access Control (MAC) protocol, the Radio Link Control (RLC) protocol, the Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP), the broadcast/multicast control protocol, the multimedia broadcast multicast control protocol, and the Radio Resource Control (RRC) protocol. In order to ensure interoperability of equipment produced by different vendors, the UE and UTRAN generally are designed to communicate with each other in accordance with the signaling protocols defined and sanctioned in the current 3GPP standards.
As the demand for mobile broadband access continues to increase, research and development continue to advance the UMTS technologies not only to meet the growing demand for mobile broadband access, but to advance and enhance the user experience with mobile communications. However, it is generally very time consuming to amend or update the 3GPP standards to introduce new features because it will involve multiple parties and complicated procedures.